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Pitch Scattegories
Pitch Scattegories
Instructions: At the start of each round, one player spins the wheel and thinks
of any product beginning with the letter that came up.
After five minutes, or less for higher difficulty, teams or individual players
decide for and announce questions for each category column. A neutral game
master then fills them in on the game sheet publicly, on a laptop plus beamer or
on a chalkboard. Then all players discuss whether an answer was correct.
3
"S'up?"
Goal: Receiving a memento from a stranger.
Purpose: Learning to approach strangers with confidence.
Requirements: Busy public place, pen and paper, camera, courage.
No matter if salespeople deal with cold leads or organic ones, interacting with
strangers is daily business for them. Still, when you want something from a
stranger, it always demands overcoming a certain reserve. Our brains are wired
to quarry for predictably positive results and shy away from the opposite.
Kio Stark is an expert in the ‘field’ of stranger interaction. This game is based
on her selection of exercises to make first contact a snap.
Before you walk off, set up a list of goals and respective point values. Higher
intimacy means stronger self-conquest means more points. Some examples:
Rhyme: 10 points
Selfie: 30 points
The ability to read someone else’s mood and temper is super useful in sales.
Especially when trying to find common ground with a potential customer, it’s
worth a mint to know how far you can go before they back away. It’s a thin line,
as Hubspot’s Pete Caputa illustrates in this post.
“Still don’t get it.” is inspired by Kio Stark’s “Get lost” exercise and simulates a
situation in which you’re earning more by pushing the envelope.
Hide your phone, play a slow-witted tourist and ask a local for directions. When
they’re done, go on to asking for more. Ask them to...
explain again in more detail because you didn’t get it. (10 extra points)
give them your phone number in case you get lost. (30 extra points)
explain again via phone after you got lost. (40 points)
You lose 20 points when locals deny you one of your requests. So, try to sense
reactions and gauge how much you can ask for.
Perfect for days on which the clock seems to go backwards, this game makes
cold calls much more enjoyable. Simply graft its point system onto your usual
sales activities.
Instructions: Work in pairs and take turns making cold calls. While one calls
with activated speaker, the other writes down feedback. Get points for closing
the deal but also for steps on the way:
The $2 game
Goal: Getting the better part of two dollars.
Purpose: Learning how beliefs and expectations influence negotiations.
Requirements: A few dollars, paper notes, reflectivity.
Instructions: As a neutral game master, let several pairs of two negotiate one
on one. Ask each pair to split two dollars. Each individual player will play three
rounds in different pairs, though they’re not aware of this.
Also, one or several secret instructions are given to each player before a round
via paper note, hidden from their counterpart. These instructions are intended to
influence negotiation goals. After each round, there will be an open debriefing:
how did the instructions influence expectations, negotiation strategies, and
eventually, the result?
“If you negotiate too careful, people will view you as weak.”
Sales stamina
Goal: Not to run out of benefits for describing a simple object.
Purpose: Learning to develop an endless stream of ideas.
Requirements: Creativity.
Some especially wary buyers are real tough nuts. They require a thought-out
win-over tactics like the ones suggested by HubSpot’s Aja Frost. And it takes
argumentative stamina. This game will train the latter.
Instructions: Kick off a group discussion about how awesome a random simple
object is. Clockwise, participant take turns naming another one until someone
runs out of ideas. That person is out for the round. Last player standing wins the
game. For a pen it could go like this:
...and so on.